Alternative Antibiotics to Have On-Hand When Prepping for a Long-Term Disaster

If you’ve been reading my preparedness posts, you’ve been stockpiling things for a while.

Planning for a natural or man-made disaster (or the increasing possibility that our economy collapses): food, water purification supplies, shelter, cooking supplies, weapons, security, and navigation tools are just the smart things to have.

Survival Med Kit Basics

Heck, you even remembered to make a sizable medical kit. This could include:

Yup, you thought of everything — or have you? So what are you going to do if you get sick or get a nasty infection? You’re going to need antibiotics.

Many times, preppers forget about stockpiling antibiotics. One reason is that they’ve never needed them before, so they don’t consider that they might need them in the future. The other reason is simply that they don’t know where to buy antibiotics or which ones to purchase.

Having a large stash of antibiotics for a long-term disaster is not only very useful but also highly vital. If something happens that leaves us without clean water or sanitation systems, electrical power, or groceries, it’ll set us back a few centuries. After that, we’ll have to re-learn how to survive independently, and infections will be a significant problem for all of us.

What about prescriptions?

Antibiotics need to be obtained via a prescription from your doctor, but your doctor will not provide you with a massive number of prescriptions for regular antibiotics. So, how can you stock up on antibiotics? The answer is easy: go to your neighborhood pet store.

It sounds crazy, but it’s not. Most standard antibiotics prescribed by doctors are also used to keep fish healthy in aquariums. Don’t believe it?

Nearly all antibiotic medications used to treat aquarium bacteria contain a single active ingredient. In many cases, it’s the same with human antibiotics—they’re even at the exact standard dosages.

It’s highly recommended that you purchase a few good, updated antibiotic books. It would also help if you bought an updated family health guide, such as the American Medical Association’s Family Medical Guide or the Mayo Clinic Family Health Book. Why not buy them both?

The more medical books you have, the better off you’ll be when you need them in a time of crisis. It’s also recommended that you do so if you have the means to stockpile medical supplies in case of a disaster.

Fish Aquarium Health? What?

It can’t be stressed enough that this list of antibiotics is for prepping and should be used only in catastrophic situations when medical help isn’t available.

Ciprofloxacin (Fish Flox): Great for treating respiratory infections like pneumonia or bronchitis, urinary tract infections, bacterial diarrhea, prostate infections, diverticulitis, and anthrax. When mixed with Fish Zole, this can help remedy infectious colitis. This shouldn’t ever be used by pregnant women, children, or nursing mothers.

Metronidazole (Fish Zole): It’s used to treat anaerobic bacterial infections in the intestines. Fish Zole also treats diabetic foot ulcers, brain or lung abscesses, bacterial vaginosis, bone or joint infections, meningitis, and a few other infections. Again, this can be combined with Fish Flox to help with colitis or diverticulitis. Like Fish Flox, pregnant women, children, and nursing mothers shouldn’t take this.

Cephalexin (Fish Flex): It’s effective for middle-ear infections and most respiratory infections, such as pneumonia, bronchitis, and strep throat. This product is safe for children and pregnant women, and it has only a few side effects.

Amoxicillin (Fish Mox): This product treats many of the same bacterial infections as Fish Flex. This is not harmful to children and pregnant women and has only a few side effects. But some people are quite allergic to Amoxicillin, in which case you would need to purchase Doxycycline.

Doxycycline (Fish Cycline): This also handles middle ear infections and many respiratory infections. It’s suitable for treating Lyme disease, Malaria, sinus infections, Syphilis, Typhus, and Chlamydia. Nevertheless, children, pregnant women, and nursing mothers shouldn’t use this medication. Side effects can include sensitive skin and kidney impairment.

Sulfamethoxazole and Trimethoprim (SMZ-TMP) (Bird Sulfa): These combined treat almost all respiratory infections, yet they’re primarily used for urinary tract infections. But the great thing about this medication is that it can help treat Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, known as resistant staph. This bacterium proliferates and is resistant to most antibiotics.

Ampicillin (Fish Cillin): Similar to penicillin, but more effective against anthrax and less likely to cause an allergic reaction. It’s also effective for urinary tract infections, respiratory tract infections, gastrointestinal infections, bacterial meningitis, and numerous other things.

What to Stock and How Much

You don’t have to stock up on all of these medicines, but at least get the first three on this list. Those three antibiotics will cover nine out of the ten infections you could get.

Although it can’t hurt to have all of these medicines if you can afford them, because you never know what could happen during the event of a national collapse or disaster, be sure to stock up on different dosages for each antibiotic you purchase; most of these come in 250 mg or 500 mg, except for Doxycycline, which is available in 100 mg.

As for storage, keep these antibiotics in the refrigerator. It’s not required, but it’ll increase their shelf life. However, do not freeze them! Freezing them can change their chemical composition, and they may no longer work. These antibiotics may remain effective for years after they expire, except for Doxycycline, which can become toxic if it becomes too old.

The Future is Now

So, if things go wrong in the future, we’ll have to improvise many elements of our lives — particularly our medical care. For example, you might be nervous about ingesting aquarium antibiotics right now. Still, you don’t want to be caught without them during a catastrophe when you’re faced with a life-threatening infection, and it’s too dangerous to go out, or the stores are completely out of them. These antibiotics are inexpensive and could very well save your life or the lives of your loved ones.

Prepping means being prepared for whatever the future holds, so we can be self-reliant and avoid dangerous situations. Keeping a small stash of the above items could very well save your life or that of someone you love.

This is not medical advice.
Always do your own due diligence, which should include running stuff like this by your primary physician.